1860 proof dime: What a difference lighting makes! Who might slab this?
ccex
Posts: 1,188 ✭✭✭
This week I received an 1860 proof Seated Liberty Dime from a favorite seller on eBay. When I went to collect it at the post office the clerk wasted 15 minutes looking thought all the packages there and told meto excoriate the seller for sending something insured for over $500 in a #10 business envelope. I feel that the coin was worth the wait, and will soon send it off for slabbing.
Here's the picture from the eBay auction:
The seller took this with a Nikon Coolpix 5200 and a single bulb at the top of something like a white plastic lampshade (I saw his photo setup when he invited me to his house last fall). Some people here may look at this and instantly post "AT".
When I opened up the envelope in my car outside the post office, it looked much darker. In sunlight I saw gun metal toning with reflective surfaces. It looked more colorful under flourescent lights at my desk at work. (My boss condones my hobby and excuses my tardiness due to postal workers' ineptitude). Still, it is a darkly toned coin. I scanned it in after work, and couldn't get anywhere close to the auction pictures' colors, even with tinkering with colors and brightness in Irfanview. When I brought it home, my scanner showed about the same as a similar scanner at work.
Tonight, I put this coin on my
poor man's copy stand.
You will note that I screwed part of a stairway handrail into a used breadboard, added a clamp from a local photo store (to which I normally attach an Olympus D-580 4 megapixel camera) and use a single gooseneck lamp with a Reveal 60W bulb. My first images here appear even darker than my first impressions in sunlight outside the post office.
At least my reverse photo shows the blue toning. I can see hints of the colors from the auction photo under pptimal lighting, and I can see no hairlines at all under any of my loupes. I know I have a long way to go before being able to post accurate images of this coin. My question is, which grading service will appreciate the strike and underlying colors, and not downgrade due to dark toning. If no one can convince me otherwise, I'll use my ANA membership to send this to NGC, where I think it will grade PR-64 with a shot at 65. Can PCGS see under dark toning?
Here's the picture from the eBay auction:
The seller took this with a Nikon Coolpix 5200 and a single bulb at the top of something like a white plastic lampshade (I saw his photo setup when he invited me to his house last fall). Some people here may look at this and instantly post "AT".
When I opened up the envelope in my car outside the post office, it looked much darker. In sunlight I saw gun metal toning with reflective surfaces. It looked more colorful under flourescent lights at my desk at work. (My boss condones my hobby and excuses my tardiness due to postal workers' ineptitude). Still, it is a darkly toned coin. I scanned it in after work, and couldn't get anywhere close to the auction pictures' colors, even with tinkering with colors and brightness in Irfanview. When I brought it home, my scanner showed about the same as a similar scanner at work.
Tonight, I put this coin on my
poor man's copy stand.You will note that I screwed part of a stairway handrail into a used breadboard, added a clamp from a local photo store (to which I normally attach an Olympus D-580 4 megapixel camera) and use a single gooseneck lamp with a Reveal 60W bulb. My first images here appear even darker than my first impressions in sunlight outside the post office.
At least my reverse photo shows the blue toning. I can see hints of the colors from the auction photo under pptimal lighting, and I can see no hairlines at all under any of my loupes. I know I have a long way to go before being able to post accurate images of this coin. My question is, which grading service will appreciate the strike and underlying colors, and not downgrade due to dark toning. If no one can convince me otherwise, I'll use my ANA membership to send this to NGC, where I think it will grade PR-64 with a shot at 65. Can PCGS see under dark toning?
"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity" - Hanlon's Razor
0
Comments
TTT for the responses this thread didn't get (I found it on page two).